"We have been building sea transportation infrastructure, including the Patimban Port, as an effort to pave a way for Indonesia-centric development, meaning developing all regions of Indonesia equally," he noted in a statement released by the Transportation Ministry in Jakarta on Monday.
The Patimban Port, being built with investment worth Rp18.9 trillion (US$1.2 billion), has been declared as one of the government's national strategic projects (PSN).
Sumadi remarked that the existence of the port is expected to help the government boost the competitiveness of national logistics, which, in turn, will help the country achieve the Golden Indonesia 2045 vision introduced by President Joko Widodo.
"The Patimban Port will emerge as a large port, much like the Tanjung Priok Port that has become part of the global supply chain," he emphasized.
He then remarked that the government had been taking various measures to ensure that the port will function optimally as expected.
The measures include increasing the capacity of its terminals, constructing road access, and developing a suitable ecosystem around the area of the port.
"We would like to invite business actors to make the most of the Patimban Port as a center for logistical activities and take part in developing the ecosystem. A number of countries have expressed their keenness to invest," he noted.
The government has completed phase 1 of the port construction process, which involves the development of a container terminal that has a capacity of 250,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and a vehicle terminal, with a capacity of 218,000 completely built-up units (CBU).
Phase 2 of the construction is currently underway. The objective of this phase is to boost the capacity of the container terminal to 3.75 million TEUs and the vehicle terminal to 600,000 CBU.
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Translator: Farhan A, Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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